FORT DEL PILAR, Baguio City, March 18 — President Benigno S. Aquino III assured the military, specifically the new graduates of the Philippine Military Academy Bagwis (Bagong Kawal na may Iisang Lakas) Class of 2012, of his administrations advocacy to continually implement reforms that will uplift the quality of life of the men in uniform.

The President gave this assurance in his speech keynoting the 107th Commencement Exercises of the PMA here on Sunday.

He said that by implementing these reforms, that are mainly composed of weeding out corruption and its sources in government, will ensure that law enforcement agencies will be able to do their jobs competently.

The President pointed out that this weeding out of corruption in government has resulted in record budget savings and surpluses in a short span of time.

He said the past administrations took 15 years to accumulate P33-billion for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Program, but under this Administration, P28-billion has already been collected in only 18 months since he took office in July 2010.

This, the President said, has allowed the government to run full steam with its housing program for law enforcement agencies: from 21,800 to 31,200 housing units.

He added that aside from personnel from the AFP and the Philippine National Police, the employees of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology as well as the Bureau of Fire Protection may soon avail themselves of this housing program.

The extra budget has also allowed the government to upgrade the equipment requirements of the AFP and the PNP.